Story+2005-08-03+Grand+Rapids,+MI

´´How you doing?....thanks....nice to be in Grand Rapids....I guess the, uh, only thing I need tonight is about as much quiet as I can get so I can give you my best, alright? enjoy yourselves....alright, gonna start with something that I....haven´t played before so, uh....let me see what I got...alright, here we go....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´Tunnel of Love´´**

´´Alright, wrote a lot about parents on this last record and what happens when those bonds get severed....and uh....read a beautiful book quite a few years back called Amazing Grace by a guy named Jonothon Kozol....who, uh, just wrote.....this lovely book on lives of innercity children and how we, uh, triage our citizens, this is ´Black Cowboys´....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´Black Cowboys´´**

´´....croc, cracling like crossed wires...(....) I hope I ain´t gonna fuck it up this time.....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., middle of ´´Long Time Coming´´**

´´Oh....finally I, uh, I finally got those words right, ´I hope I ain´t gonna fuck it up´ (chuckles) ....´too bad,´ you know, that´s, that´s, I, I should´ve got that on the record, that was, you need the little qualifier in there, need a little elbow room, ´I hope, I hope,´ I had to fuck it up to hope, I´m not gonna fuck it up, alright, anyway, I hope I don´t fuck this up, it´s, uh (chuckles) I haven´t played this one before, this was a, uh, request from somebody, I forget who, but, uh, it´s a good summer song so, uh, let´s see how we do.....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´Sherry Darling´´ (following ´´Long Time Coming´´)**

´´(chuckles) Happy summer, happy summer....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., after ´´Sherry Darling´´**

´´I was, uh, recently over in Europe where I...tried to explain to the folks of old Europe that, uh....in the States we have a big debate going over, uh, who came first the Man or the monkey....I´m not sure they understood what I was talking about, they´re, they´re pretty sure the monkey came first over there....that they even know where the monkey is....but I tried to explain to them that a lot of the very popular sitcoms and things that made their way over to Europe, such as the Flintstones, probably, uh, couldn´t get made in the climate that we have in the country today....due to the, uh, ambiguous relationship between Barney and Fred....I don´t even wanna get into Dino....there´s no place like home.... (....) We´ve come a long way, baby....and we´re going back.....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´Part Man Part Monkey´´**

´´I need a little echo at end of, the tail of this, Coop....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´One Step Up´´**

´´(?)...it takes a mighty crew of three men to get this piano onstage....that´s right.....alright, let me see what I got here, alright....the music for that....can I get, I know you got it....come on ....come on, kids (chuckles) thank you, brother, alright....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´Nothing Man´´**

´´(Bruce´s mike doesn´t work)....up on stage, oh, there it is (chuckles)....(the mike is off again) off again, now it´s off again, now it´s back, there it is....what the fuck´s going on out there, huh? what are you doing?....what´s going on out there? somebody´s not minding the goddamn store, oh Lord, hold on, Coop, hold on, Coop....you know the soundmen do have their own groupies, you know, I gotta watch that....you´re in the middle of the set, all of a sudden: no goddamn microphone....one, two....alright, turn me up and turn this, make this, make this bastard brighter, come on, let me hear it....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´I Wish I Were Blind´´**

´´´Thank you very much, thank you....I, uh....I was raised, uh, Catholic in a....in this little neighbourhood, we had a little L-shaped, you know, block and it was like my grandmom´s house that I lived in with my folks and, uh, then there was this little field and there was a nuns´ convent and then there was a priest´s rectory, then there was the Catholic church right on the corner and right across from the Catholic church was my aunts and cousins´ house, then right next to them was my aunt´s house, my uncle and cousins, and then two houses down was my great-grandmother´s house and then, that was my father´s side of the family (chuckles) then right across the street was my mother´s mother and her sisters and cousins and uh....we kind of had, we had the whole neighbourhood pretty sewed up....but my mother´s family never crossed the street to my father´s family and my father´s family never crossed the street to my mother´s and one was Irish, my dad´s was Irish, and my mother´s was Italians and, uh, the twain never really met, you know (chuckles) except in me, I guess (chuckles) and uh, and my wife (chuckles) you know, but, uh, uh, I saw about every wedding and funeral in, in ten years in that little church, you know, it was the only thing that we had to do, was, I, I´ve seen more guys carried away in the back of a Cadillac than you wanna, than you wanna know but, uh (chuckles) but that whole thing never quite gets away from you, the whole Catholic thing, it sort of, uh, it´s like that Al Pacino-line in that, uh, that, that terrible Godfather III picture where, uh, uh, the first two ones however are history-making (chuckles) so that´s a pretty good, that´s a pretty good percentage (chuckles) but he´s, you know, ´I keep trying to get out, they keep pulling me back´ so needless to say as I was thinking about parents and children, I had to think about, uh, you know, what it must´ve been like just Jesus as somebody´s son, just as someone´s child making the particular choices in life and, uh, you know, kids have their own destiny and, uh, and you´re along for the whole damn ride so, uh, this is called, uh, ´Jesus Was an Only Son´.... (....) At His mother´s feet....now the first thing that strikes you when you have your kids is how there´s suddenly this feeling in your gut that there´s nothing you wouldn´t do, nothing in the world, to keep them safe....and that that´s a life sentence.... (....) will pierce your dreams this night....now if you figure that what gives our choices weight and meaning are the things that we sacrifice for them, you choose some part of life.... and you give up something else....that´s the adult bargain....but I always figured that....Jesus had to be thinking about the things He was gonna....lose.....and he had to be figuring....that it´s beautiful this time of year down in Galilee and there´s a little bar there that needs a manager....Mary Magdalene could probably tend bar....they could have a bunch of kids....and got to see the sun fall on their faces and watch the air fill their lungs at night when they´re sleeping and see the next day....and see the next day....and the next day....and the next day.... and the next day....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´Jesus Was an Only Son´´**

´´Thank you, thanks a lot....alright....alright, uh....well, uh.....let me see, we carry with us.... we carry with us the seeds of all the things that we build and, and create and that´s real and we also carry with us the seeds of our own destruction, that´s real too, and, uh.....I guess in theory that was, that was God´s....I suppose it was, it was meant as a punishment, that was the whole story of east of Eden, you know, uh....I´m not sure that it is....life would have been pretty boring....how many walks around the garden can you take, I mean, you know (chuckles) then what?....you keep coming back to that apple tree....it ain´t going anywhere (chuckles) neither is that urge (chuckles) so, uh....my whole theory is the whole thing was planned like that in the first place, that the whole idea that there was a choice there was....I don´t think so (chuckles)....there´s that great line in Wiseblood, Flannery O´Connor (?) a guy starts the Church of Jesus Christ Dead Buried and Remaining That Way (chuckles) but uh.... it´s an idea, this is ´The Hitter´ (chuckles)....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´The Hitter´´ (following ´´Two Hearts´´)**

´´Thank you....thanks, I wrote this song as a, uh, wrote a, lived in California four years or so, uh, uh, wrote a bunch of songs that were set in the Central Valley, down along the border.... on The Ghost of Tom Joad, this was a song, it´s kind of a part of that group of songs, I wrote it as a sequel, every, uh.....every year there´s hundreds of people that die trying to cross our southern borders, they die of dehydration in the desert and they die in the rivers and in the backs of vans, coming, trying to come to United States to do the worst and the dirtiest jobs tha we have, uh, we´re in hard, hard need of a humane immigration policy....so this is song, I wrote it backwards, I wrote it from the point of a body at the bottom of the river to the man walking across the desert till he gets to the banks of the Rio Grande, uh, across from Brownsville, Texas, this is ´Matamoros Banks´....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´Matamoros Banks´´**

´´Thanks a lot, wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show tonight, thank you very much....a lot of fun....and uh....oh, man, I wanna do a shout-out to some friends of ours here in the house, the Second Harvest (?) of West Michigan....a foodbank here in West Michigan, they feed the hungry with (?) industry surplusses and they use discards and they send it to organizations in 40 county service areas, they´re out there helping the, uh, struggling citizens of West Michigan, please on your way out, check out, check ´em out, they´re out there in the hall, if you can give them some support, they, they could really use it, thanks a lot....uh, I´ll do this for them, Second Harvest, and, uh, for you, thanks for coming along....´´
 * 03.08.05 Grand Rapids, Mich., intro to ´´The Promised Land´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//